Monday, February 27, 2017

Arkansas and the Yucky People bill: will the “Freedom of Conscience Act” triumph over basic humanity?

Well, it will if State Senator Jason Rapert and his friends at the Family Council have their way.

The bill - backed by the fun loving folks at the Family Council - has the unwieldy moniker, “Healthcare Freedom of Conscience Act,” which would sort of allow all sort of folks, including doctors, pharmacists, social workers, nurses to refuse to treat folks, if such would conflict with their “conscience.”

You know the sort of human beings the sort of people both the Family Council and Senator Rapert might well describe as “Yucky People.”

This “Freedom of Conscience” bill would also allow hospitals, medical clinics, and insurance companies (say what?) to indulge in all sorts of bigotry against folks who need help. True, it creates a path for legal remedy if folks for folks who are denied treatment.

Good news for the Free Marketeers out there: no protection whatsoever is provided if the treatment denied is necessary to save one’s life.

Good times Ahead, Narcissistic Reader.

In addition to Rapert, the bill was co-sponsored by State Senator Linda Collins-Smith, so there is plenty of bad karma to go around.

Not to worry, though, everyone concerned is convinced that this law will only be beneficial, and as Luke McCoy, the Family Council lobbyist who worked on the bill (how much of it he actually wrote all by himself has not been revealed) said that he doesn’t want the bill be cause any problems.

For example, one of the sponsors claimed that the bill would “protect” a Muslim doctor from performing heart surgery with the heart valves of a pig, if he had religious objections.

Boy, I’ll bet somebody really wracked their brain to come up with that one.

And, yeah, while those behind the bill are kind enough to say that it won’t allow denial of services based on identity or status, Luke McCoy ( whose parents must have really loved TV’s “The Real McCoys”) said that “identity” does not cover transgendered folks.

Well, no shocker there.

the bitter truth is, there never is any shocker about the attempts of those who would institutionalize bigotry in the name “conscience.”

If this bill passes, our Right to Work State will truly also become a Right to Die State.

For years I have been hearing this wild rumour that for those in the medical profession, “First, do no harm,” is the highest principle.

Thanks to Jason Rapert, Linda Collins-Smith and the jolly folks at the Family Council, maybe we can get rid of that pesky little notion, as well.

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